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The Elite
OTT ROH RPW }} The Elite (stylized as The ELITE) is a professional wrestling group, made up of Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). Though primarily working in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, the trio has also worked together in the American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion as well as several promotions in the United Kingdom. The Elite was formed in January 2016 as a subgroup within Bullet Club. The trio has held the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship on two occasions, while Omega has also won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship once and The Young Bucks both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship twice as part of the group. Background Prior to the 2016 formation of The Elite, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) had known each other for years. They originally met in Japan in 2008, when Omega was on his first tour with the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion and The Young Bucks were on their first tour with the Dragon Gate promotion. They became close friends after later meetings in other promotions, including California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). Omega has stated that the three had always thought that they shared the same brain, having the same thoughts about what a wrestling match should be. Matt Jackson has described the creative chemistry between the three as unlike anything they have experienced before, adding "there's magic there". Omega, who has called The Young Bucks, his best friends and closest allies in professional wrestling, has stated that the three have "an open line of communication sending messages all day". The Elite was created as a result of one of these "think-tank sessions", during which, the three came up with the idea of filming their moments away from the ring and sharing them with their fans. These moments, some only loosely tied to professional wrestling, were used the create Being The Elite, a show produced by The Young Bucks and released on both Twitter and YouTube. In 2016, the three were affiliated with each other in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion as members of the Bullet Club stable, but in Omega's words, they felt that the stable had been watered down and wanted to create something new. Omega claimed that whenever people were saying that Bullet Club had been doing "some really cool stuff", they were in fact always talking about the three of them and not the other members of the stable. Wanting to be together both in the ring and outside of it, the three decided to go full-bore as The Elite. They had come up with the name The Elite as a joke years earlier, when trying to come up with a list of the most elite wrestlers in the world. Omega stated that he and The Young Bucks wanted to push themselves as The Elite, but accepted if NJPW continued calling them Bullet Club "in parentheses" as the stable was their "cash cow" and a "pop-culture phenomenon". Omega has described The Elite as "a place you can go to watch the most ridiculous and entertaining stuff in pro wrestling". History On January 5, 2016, Kenny Omega took over the leadership of Bullet Club, turning its members, including The Young Bucks, on previous leader A.J. Styles and kicking him out of the group. According to The Young Bucks, they and Omega created The Elite that night without ever asking permission from NJPW bookers. After the rest of Bullet Club had left the ring after turning on Styles, Omega allegedly asked The Young Bucks if just the three of them should return to the ring to continue the attack on Styles as a "signal to the audience that were the three guys". The three agreed to return to the ring and The Elite was born. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka he Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Matt Sydal and Ricochet in a three-way match, also involving reDRagon. Three days later at The New Beginning in Niigata, In the main event of the show, Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, which had been vacated following Shinsuke Nakamura's departure from NJPW. The Elite won its first title as a trio on February 20, during the NJPW and Ring of Honor (ROH) co-produced Honor Rising: Japan 2016 show, when they defeated The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) and Toru Yano for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. They went on to defend the title in the United States for ROH. The Elite lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin and Yoshitatsu on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, only to regain it from them on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016. On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Young Bucks won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the fifth time by defeating Matt Sydal and Ricochet, reDRagon and Roppongi Vice in a four-way elimination match. Later that same event Omega lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in NJPW's first ever ladder match to Michael Elgin. Their second reign ended on July 3, when they were defeated by Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima. On August 14, Omega made history by becoming the first non-Japanese wrestler to win NJPW's premier tournament, the G1 Climax, defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals. For the rest of the year, The Elite was largely inactive with Omega defending his newly-won status as the number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, while The Young Bucks concentrated on tag team matches, winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship in September. On January 4, 2017, The Elite was involved in two championship matches at NJPW's biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome. Early in the show, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero), while in the main event of the show, Omega unsuccessfully challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The main event match earned acclaim from journalists and industry veterans with some ranking it among the greatest professional wrestling matches ever. After months of inactivity as a trio, The Elite reunited in April 2017 by embarking on a tour of the United Kingdom, during which they wrestled for Discovery Wrestling, Fight Club: Pro, Over the Top Wrestling and Revolution Pro Wrestling. Meanwhile, a storyline had started involving tension between Omega and Bullet Club stablemate Adam Cole, who had formed his own trio named "Superkliq" with The Young Bucks, who were now caught in the middle of Omega and Cole. The storyline culminated on May 12, when The Young Bucks, after teasing dissension with Omega, turned on Cole, who was fired from Bullet Club by Omega. On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Young Bucks regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Roppongi Vice. In the main event of the show, Omega and Kazuchika Okada wrestled to a 60-minute time limit draw for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. ''Being the Elite'' Being the Elite debuted on YouTube in May 2016 and has since aired, on average, once or twice a week. The show is shot and edited entirely on an iPhone with the members of The Elite holding complete creative control over the content. Originally intended as a promotional vehicle and a video journal of The Elite's life on the road, it has since evolved into a hybrid that also includes skits and storyline developments involving both The Elite and Bullet Club. In early 2017, Being the Elite provided the background for an angle that culminated on the War of the Worlds pay-per-view in May with The Elite turning on Adam Cole and kicking him out of Bullet Club. While ROH had previously shown that there was tension between Cole and The Young Bucks, Being the Elite went deeper into the background for the angle with a storyline that involved tension between Cole and Omega and their fight for The Young Bucks' loyalty, while also introducing Marty Scurll, who would go on to become Cole's replacement in Bullet Club. In wrestling *'Triple-team finishing moves' **''Tiger Hattori Special'' (Rolling fireman's carry slam into a springboard moonsault by Omega followed by a high-angle senton bomb by Nick followed by a 450° splash by Matt) *'Triple-team signature moves' **Triple superkick *'The Young Bucks' **''Indytaker'' (Springboard spike kneeling reverse piledriver) **''Meltzer Driver'' (Springboard somersault spike kneeling reverse piledriver) **''More Bang 4 Your Buck'' (Rolling fireman's carry slam by Matt followed by a 450° splash by Nick followed by a moonsault by Matt) *'Omega's finishing moves' **''Croyt's Wrath'' (Electric chair dropped into a bridging German suplex) **''Katayoku no Tenshi'' / One-Winged Angel (One-handed electric chair driver) **''V-Trigger'' (Running knee strike) Championships and Accomplishments *'DDT Pro-Wrestling' **Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time) - Young Bucks * New Japan Pro Wrestling **IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (3 times, current) - The Young Bucks **IWGP Intercontinental Championship (1 time) – Omega **NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) ** G1 Climax (2016) - Omega *'Pro Wrestling Guerrilla' **PWG World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – The Young Bucks *''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' **Ranked Kenny Omega No. 23 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 **Ranked Matt Jackson No. 46 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 **Ranked Nick Jackson No. 49 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015 *'Ring of Honor' **ROH World Tag Team Championship (2 times, current) – The Young Bucks *''Tokyo Sports'' **Technique Award (2016) – Omega *''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' **5 Star Match (2016) Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito on August 13 **6 Star Match (2017) Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada on January 4 **Best Wrestling Maneuver (2016) Omega's One-Winged Angel **Tag Team of the Year (2016) The Young Bucks References External links *Bullet Club at Shop.NJPW.co.jp Category:NJPW teams and stables